Reasons to be Cheerful: Mud and Sunshine #R2BC

 
How did it get to Thursday already? I'm joining in a bit late with Michelle as life is whizzing by. Here are some of my reasons to be cheerful this week:

1) Petition Started

At the second attempt I've managed to get a petition started to amend the Mental Health Act. At the moment the current one makes no allowances for people with autism so they can be denied treatment. Please sign the petition to help rectify this wrong.

2) Running


Yes running - I actually ran not just once but twice including a mood lifting 6 km out on the old canal:

I do now hope I will be OK for my 10 km race in 2 weeks, although I've now caught another cold....

3) Muddy Fun

The sun shone for the Sedbergh fell race which meant for those landing in the water jump it was more funny than horrendous! It certainly made the spectators smile:

Plenty more muddy moments on my video:

4) Spring Sunshine

Like most of the country I have been loving the unseasonal mini "heatwave". Walking to and from work has been heavenly:

 

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Reasons to be Cheerful: Half Term holidays #R2BC

 
Its a good job Michelle is hosting this month as I'm forgetting which day of the week it is! We are enjoying our half term break even if its very soggy one. Here are my reasons to be cheerful so far this week:

1) More School Cooking

My son did proper cooking this week and came home with yummy fruit cake:

2) Extended Family

Our trip to Manchester gave us a chance to meet up with my 2nd cousin and his family. I hadn't seen his wife and children for 12 years so it was a chance for the children (who are 3rd cousins) to properly meet.

3) Proud Mum

My son finished 8th in his latest fell race. This is his best finish position yet and he is putting together all that his coaches are teaching him:

Madeline Linford and the Manchester Guardian

Today I joined several members of my family to travel to Manchester and the John Rylands library. My dad had discovered that my great aunt Madeline Linford was featured in an exhibition about the women who shaped Manchester:

My mum had arranged for us to meet an archivist who would give us access to all the papers referring to Madeline in the library. This meant that 3 generations of us met up at the library:

My great aunt Madeline was chosen because of her groundbreaking career at the Manchester Guardian. She joined the paper in 1913 and in 1922 became the first Editor of the Women’s Page. She started life in the Manchester Guardian not as journalist, but as an assistant in the display advertisement department after which time she became editor W.P. Crozier’s personal assistant. She remained the only woman on the editorial staff until Crozier’s daughter Mary joined in 1930. This video tells why she was a trail blazer for women in journalism:

Mid Lancs League Cross Country at Leigh Sports Village

Our first sporting activity of the weekend was a trip down the M6 and M61 to Leigh in Lancashire so my son could run in the Mid Lancs League cross country. These races are very fast and furious which doesn't really suit him but they make for good race practice and fitness. The first job on arrival is always to walk the course. As there are so many categories there are different lengths of laps and combinations. His course was going to be one medium lap:

Out on the golf course there was plenty of tape to help runners find their way:

Once he had walked the route I headed out onto the course to find suitable spots for videoing each of the 7 races. I tried to find something slightly different for each of them to showcase the route:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Fruit Salad, Museum, Fell Running and Puppy #R2BC

 
Thank you Michelle for hosting this month. I am actually posting on the right day this week but its a close call! With some stressful moments throughout the week its definitely a good idea to look back at the happier moments...

1) School Cooking

My son started his first 6 week block of catering last Friday. He came home with a yummy fruit salad (and still had all his fingers!):

2) Museum Trip

I was on a school trip to the Museum of Lakeland Life and Industry in Kendal. We were told about how hard it was for Victorian children who had to work from a young age. There was a chance to get up close to some artefacts such as this school exercise book from 1856:

3) Fell Running

I sat for several hours on a hillside filming fell running at Barbondale this weekend. Its lovely getting great feedback and spotting the funny moments whilst editing the films:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Fell Foot, Puppy, Bling and Bubbles #R2BC

 
I have handed the reins of host back to Michelle for the month. Just as well as I've been quite poorly so struggling to blog! So I am a day late but I still have some things that have made me happy over the last week. 

1) Back to Fell Foot

I've made it back to my home parkrun for the first time this year. It was a truly stunning morning if a very chilly -2C. How could this view not make you smile:

2) Earning his keep

Sherlock is earning his keep by entertaining us all and making us smile and laugh:

3) Bling

I got my first medal for 2019 for completing my Running Resolution Challenge for January. It might have have only been 43 km but its a good start:

#AD Ravensburger What If Puzzle: Lost in Translation

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I am always really pleased to be asked to review Ravensburger jigsaws as they are such great quality and a great challenge. The Lost in Translation puzzle certainly lived up to my expectations:

The thing about these What If puzzles is that the final picture does not match the picture on the box but you have to make educated guesses as to how it has changed. So of course I had to start with the traditional edge piece construction:

The soft click technology means that is really obvious when you have put the right pieces together although finishing it still requires pattern matching and some checking with the box: